Showing Her How
by ellkayjay
Summary: Hermione has eyes for someone at work, but she knows she shouldn't.
1. Prologue: Her

**_A/N - This is going to be a fairly short story about Hermione and Lucius. I know that it's a pairing that has been done quite a lot already, but it's my favourite, so please be kind! The first two chapters will be from a first person narrative to get an insight into how they are both feeling, and then it will switch to third person. Please read and review - I love feedback!_**

**_Disclaimer - I do not own Hermione, Lucius or any of the other Harry Potter characters. JK Rowling does, and all I am doing is providing my own modest take on her wonderful world. _**

* * *

He should disgust me. And he does, he really does. All those terrible things that he has done to my friends, to all the people that I love, make me want to curse him, hex him, punch him in the face.

And yet… There is something about him. Since the end of the war, since his wife left him, he has changed. Somehow, being abandoned by his wife has changed him into a different man. _A better man._ The sneer is still there, but less pronounced, and it's not thrown in my direction quite so frequently these days. He still thinks himself superior, but I know that attitudes like his will not change overnight.

He hates working alongside me, as an equal. He doesn't say it, but I can tell. Not only am I a woman, but I am younger than him and - whisper it - I'm a mudblood too. But he has to work now, for the Ministry stripped him of much of his fortune when the war was over, and his wife took what was left in the divorce settlement. So he works at the Ministry, on the same team as me, and we are treated as equals by the head of the department.

I watch him as he works. He fascinates me. If Harry, or Ron, or Ginny knew that I was looking at him and feeling this way they would probably have me carted off to St Mungo's immediately. Either that or they would disown me, never speak to me again. It's one thing to accept that he has served his punishment and reluctantly turned over a new leaf, quite another to be having feelings like this about him. But I can't help it. I imagine what it would be like to be held by him, kissed by him…

Ron and I quickly realised that we did not have nearly enough in common with one another to make a go of our relationship after the war. He was happy to bask in the glow of celebrity that surrounded the three of us then, but I was never comfortable with it. I wanted to do something that would make a difference, and he wanted to flirt with witches who wanted to have a photo with the famous Ron Weasley. There are no hard feelings now; I love him dearly but as nothing more than my best friend. Things never really progressed beyond more than friends who kissed (quite innocently, I might add). And now, at the ripe old age of 24, I am the girl who poured so much into her studies and her career path that she never really had time for a boyfriend. I long to be touched by a man who knows how – not one of those gangly, youthful boys that seem to always be asking me for a date. By a man with experience, someone who knows what he is doing. Someone like him.


	2. Prologue: Him

It's insufferable, having to work here, but since the Ministry decided to seize my assets during my time in Azkaban, I had little choice. Of course, it could be worse, I could be doing some awful job in a shop or some such hellhole, but luckily my name still counts for something, and I managed to get in at the Ministry. Magical Law Enforcement is not necessarily the ideal department, but I am sure that if I work hard and impress the right people, I might get a promotion at some point.

Everyday I have to come in and sit opposite the Granger girl. We're apparently team members but she is the team manager's pet, so she gets to lord it over the rest of us. She was at school with my son for goodness sake! She's nothing more than a chit of a girl and she tries to tell me what to do! And she's a … well, never mind that. I have to try and be politically correct these days. I am trying. I watch her work and I know she's as capable as any pure blooded witch or wizard there is. Part of the terms of my release from Azkaban was that I was to display a tolerance of all types of wizard, and I certainly try, though I have to bite my tongue at points.

I see her looking at me. At first I thought that she was watching over me and providing reports back to Shacklebolt. Maybe she is, but sometimes I catch her with a strange look on her face, and if I look back at her, she blushes and looks away. I am reluctant to venture it as a possibility, but I swear I have caught the look of desire in her eyes, more than once. The first time it happened I told myself that I was imagining it. Firstly, the girl is just that, a girl, and I am old enough to be her father. Secondly, for the first seven years that she knew of my existence, and I of hers, I did very little to endear myself to her, let alone attract her in that way. And yet, it has happened more than once, and I have been around the block enough times to know when a woman wants me. It's not unwelcome as such, I am human after all. And she's a stunningly beautiful young thing. This may require some thinking about.


	3. Them: Part I

It had been going on for months. Hermione had actually started dreaming of him now, and each time the dreams got more and more detailed. It was becoming quite difficult to face him in the office each day, and she was beginning to wonder how skilled he was at legilimency, as he seemed to have a knowing look on his face more often than not.

Lucius was not skilled at legilimency. He didn't need to be, he could tell what Hermione was thinking by the way she blushed slightly sometimes when he spoke to her, or the way that she bit on her bottom lip if he got a bit close. If he was honest, he was having fun pushing her to her limits. It was so unusual to see the perfect Hermione Granger outside of her comfort zone. He wondered how much experience she had with men. There was always some disgusting young male in the office, making excuses to talk to her and then casually suggesting that they meet for a drink, but she always rebutted them (in the politest way possible, of course, for this was Granger). He knew that she had had something of a relationship with the Weasley boy, but Draco had told him that it had fizzled out. So, he concluded, it was no wonder that his casual flirting had got her a little hot under the collar.

Lucius had long since decided that he was going to seduce Hermione. He had been a single man since Narcissa had walked out, and Granger provided something of a challenge, albeit one that he could most definitely overcome. An innocent (virginal, unless he was very much mistaken), beautiful young woman was just what he needed right now.

* * *

It had been a long week at work for everyone, with some particularly big cases demanding attention. Lucius rubbed the back of his neck and looked over at Hermione's desk.

"Time to leave Granger, it's the weekend." He had decided to start the ball rolling with regards to his plan this weekend, but was treading carefully to get the lie of the land.

"You're right, Lucius, it is. At least it will be when I've finished going through this report." Hermione was never one to leave the office on time, always staying behind to get 'just this last thing done.'

"Oh no, not today. We've been here late every day this week, and it's Friday, so you're leaving. Now. And you are coming for a drink with me to celebrate the end of a nasty week."

"A drink?" Hermione blushed, and then cursed herself for it. Damned cheeks, giving her away! "Well, it's very kind of you, but I really must stay and finish…" Lucius cut her off.

"Do I look like the sort of man who brooks an argument, Granger? I don't. Get your things together now, and follow me." Lucius swept out of the office.

Hermione found herself doing exactly what he had said, and was shocked at herself. Wasn't she a modern woman who could stand up to a man and not let him order her around? Normally she was, but right now her brain didn't seem to be working properly.

* * *

A/N - Sorry if you are finding the chapters too short. I don't want to pack too much in at once, although I hope to be updating them fairly regularly. I would love to hear what you think of this short story!


	4. Them: Part II

"Now, isn't this better than sitting in that office all by yourself, like you do every night?" Lucius asked. The colour was raised in Hermione's cheeks as they sat in the Leaky Cauldron, busy with workers celebrating the end of the working week. She really did look quite delicious, he decided, as he sipped on his firewhiskey. He didn't foresee his plan taking too long to work.

"Well yes, I suppose," she answered, sipping on her own drink. Firewhiskey had never really agreed with her, and she had only accepted it so Lucius would not look down his nose at her usual drink of choice – a Butterbeer. It was making her cheeks flush, she knew, along with the fact that she was sitting opposite the man (literally) of her dreams. She had no illusions that he was interested in her, but she knew that her dreams would be coming back again tonight, only this time they would start off in this pub before he kissed her, and then touched her, and then…

"Granger? You look far away? Thinking about anything interesting?" Lucius asked, though he suspected he knew the answer. She was biting on her lower lip again.

Hermione felt herself blush, and then decided that he probably couldn't tell anyway. She felt as though she was permanently red—cheeked around him these days. She looked at him, and decided to bite the bullet. She knew that there was little chance of anything happening (and she wasn't entirely sure that she wanted anything to anyway). But that didn't mean that she couldn't take the opportunity to get in a bit of practice at flirting.

She looked at him in what she hoped was a coy, flirtatious way. "Actually, I just remembered that you were in my dream last night. The details are a little fuzzy, but it was definitely you," she said, instantly regretting it. Had she already said too much?

Lucius raised an eyebrow. He was genuinely surprised; not by the fact that she had been dreaming of him, if he was sure of nothing else it was that she was harbouring a crush on him, at the very least. It was the fact that she had decided to come out and tell him about it. She was flirting with him, the little minx! Lucius didn't believe for one minute that she didn't remember the details; if her body language around him all day was anything to go by, she remembered all too well.

"Well I hope it wasn't a nightmare? "

"Not as far as I can remember, no. I certainly didn't wake up screaming."

Lucius had to bite his tongue to stop himself from telling her that he had plans to make her scream, though not while she was asleep. He was enjoying this new Hermione; she seemed to have relaxed and was trying to flirt, even if she obviously fairly new to it. They carried on like this for sometime, the conversation flowing easily, with a flirtatious undertone to it.

After their second drink, Lucius looked at his watch. "Well Granger, I'm afraid I am going to have to make a move. I have arrangements to meet Draco for dinner. He has a new girlfriend; evidently they are serious enough for him to want to introduce her to me."

Hermione felt a small pang of disappointment. Whilst she knew that the likelihood of Lucius being interested in her was minute, she had been enjoying the evening, and felt that he had been flirting with her as much as she had been with him. Now he was rushing off, and she had to go home alone, as usual.

"OK, well thank you very much for the drinks; it was certainly preferable to sitting in the office and getting that work done!" Hermione said, with a false smile plastered on her face. The truth of the matter was that she was actually going to go back to the office now and continue with that work. She knew that it made her a sad case, working so late on a Friday, and normally she would not have any qualms about spending the night in her little flat by herself. But she couldn't face it tonight, not now. "Bye Lucius, see you on Monday."

Lucius, for his part, wanted nothing more than to take her back to the Manor and begin her education. She was disappointed, he could see that, but it was all part of his plan. He knew that it would be easy to get her into bed; she wore practically every emotion and thought inside her head upon her face. But that wasn't the way that he wanted to go about it. He wanted her to want him, even more than she did now. If everything went to plan, Hermione Granger would be screaming Lucius Malfoy's name within a month.


End file.
